The “1922” short message service (SMS) is only used for contact tracing to curb the spread of COVID-19 and has never been used in criminal investigations, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said on Sunday.
The commission issued the statement after the Legislative Yuan on Friday reduced the subsidies that the commission budgeted to partially fund telecoms in maintaining their messaging service systems from NT$800 million (US$28.623 million) to NT$300 million.
On Saturday, the Chinese-language United Daily News published a letter written by Taichung District Court Judge Chang Yuan-sen (張淵森), who accused the Criminal Investigation Bureau of using the 1922 service to track suspects, citing an application for a search warrant he had reviewed.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei City Government via CNA
The commission said in the statement that information gathered through the 1922 service is only used for “disease prevention purposes,” meaning that only the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) can request access to the data.
The bureau has never requested the center’s permission to access the data, it said.
“Except for the CECC, telecoms have never offered such data to other third parties. The government has been keeping its word about how data should be used,” it added.
The Communication Security and Surveillance Act (通訊保障及監察法) stipulates that a district judge may issue an interception warrant if there is sufficient evidence that an accused or a suspect has been involved in criminal activity, and that it is reasonable to assume that the content of their communications is relevant to the case being investigated.
The warrant allows police to view or listen to communication records of suspects, including text messages sent to the 1922 hotline, the commission said.
“The communication surveillance system is regulated by the Communication Security and Surveillance Act, whereas data collected by 1922 messaging service are used by CECC to track the spread of coronavirus. The two systems are established using different regulations, setting different purposes and scopes for data gathering,” it said.
“It is regrettable that the judge made a commentary without first discerning different regulations governing access to the two systems,” it said.
Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), who is a deputy head of the center, said that they have reminded police stations nationwide that they should exclude 1922 messages from criminal investigations.
The service activates the text-messaging function for the 1922 hotline, which was established by the Centers for Disease Control for people to ask questions about COVID-19 or other communicable diseases.
Regarding the budget cut for messaging services, the commission said text messages are delivered to the 1922 hotline free of charge.
As of Monday last week, more than 390 million messages had been sent to 1922, the commission said.
The subsidies would be used to help telecoms expand the capacity of their text-messaging systems to store messages and process the CECC’s contact tracing requests, the commission said.
The money spent by telecoms to maintain the systems is much more than the subsidies.
The Executive Yuan launched 1922’s messaging service on May 19, when the government issued a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert. Under the alert, businesses and restaurants must record customers’ names and telephone numbers, as well as the number of accompanying visitors, for contact tracing.
Businesses and restaurants need to obtain a QR code by registering on the e-Mask pre-order system (emask.taiwan.gov.tw/real) and place the code in their venues.
When entering a store or a restaurant, people need to scan the code using a smartphone and follow a prompt that appears on the screen to send a message to the 1922 hotline.
Telecoms must delete the messages from their systems after 28 days.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
RSS